It’s no doubt that the increase in consumption of processed foods with added sugars, fats, and chemicals along with larger portions have played a role in our society’s health and wellness. For many, including myself, dietary changes present a lot of challenges. It can be easier to grab food on the go or at a restaurant. Quality produce, meats, and other products can sometimes be more expensive. Sugar and fat laden treats often do taste good. Our bodies seek out those ingredients and the cravings can be too much to handle. But it’s worth it to push past those “troubles” to make the changes for our health.

I love that I see exercise and fitness being promoted more and more in society. Yet, that isn’t enough. I guess this is just my friendly little reminder today that what you put into your body counts. Think before you eat. Check your portions. Know what you’re eating. Take care of your fitness, but also – and even more importantly – take care of your nutrition.

During my college years (and the first few years following graduation), I used exercise as a method that would allow me to eat whatever I wanted – my weight stayed down but I was in no way, shape or form “healthy”. Now as a wife, mother, and soon to be 30 year old, I have come to realize how poor food choices make my body feel more than how they effect the number on my scale. I feel better, sleep better, and have more energy when I eat lean protein, whole grains, and fresh fruits/veggies. Moreover, I now exercise because I truly enjoy it rather than to try and counteract the Big Mac I just ate.

The CDC’s infographic is truly eye opening – I am going to share it with my daughter’s daycare — perhaps they will pass it on to each family.

Great picture & article! There are so many causes to obesity, and the environment is a HUGE one. It’s so easy to get sugary and unhealthy convenience food. A lot of people don’t understand nutrition because of conflicting messages they’re told, and companies also trick us into thinking products are healthy – like breakfast cereals for kids that are loaded with sugar but say “full of whole grains!” on the front.

This is a great statement! I think so many people get into the mentality “I work out so I can eat whatever I want” Personally, I have been in that camp, I was eating what I thought was ‘healthy’ but it really was just a lot of low-fat/no-fat pre-packaged ‘junk’. I wasn’t over-weight, but I was not fueling my body properly (sick all the time, tired). Now I stick mostly to ‘real foods’…its amazing how much better I feel!

Eating right has never been hard for me. I guess I’m one of the strange ones that actually loves healthy foods. I do believe all food can be addictive. Meaning when your body becomes accustomed to a certain type of food, you will crave it. Sadly, people think fast food is cheaper, quicker and easier in their busy lifestyles. Even the trainer I work with says that to me. It infuriates me to hear this, but it seems that is the way most people think. Ultimately, no, I don’t believe you can out exercise a bad diet. However I do believe that treats are a healthy part of any diet! It’s a balancing act for sure.

Agreed! They should be included – you know I have mine – and it’s all about seeking a healthy balance. It’s crazy how skewed many of our bodies are now though. If we fuel ourselves properly I 100% agree that we will crave those types of things too.

I tried to do this for years. In high school I ate like crap but b/c I played sports year round for hours a day, I stayed very skinny. Then college hit and while i was still exercising, it was a more “noraml” amount and I still ate poorly and the weight crept on. Honestly, still today, this is my biggest challenge. I am a very picky eater so it’s difficult for me!

The idea of working out to control your weight and not because it’s fun or something you at least get some kind of pleasure out of (i.e. training for triathlons might not be all fun, but at the end of it all and thanks to the community and the fun training that comes along with it it’s worth it!) is one that took me a long time to come to…but when I realized that my life totally changed! So if this idea that working out doesn’t undo bad eating helps people give up the endless compulsive exercise and seek out alternatives to move that make them feel good, then amen to that! If it helps them eat less processed food, AWESOME! But I think the problem is that people need to get away from weight and think about their other motivations: you work out to be healthy and to feel energized, you eat to fuel yourself, and your weight is just a byproduct.

Rant away, my friend! I agree whole heartedly. I believe HEALTH is what should matter so much more than any number on a scale. Sure, that can relate, but it shouldn’t be the determining factor. Energy, happiness, longevity, etc all play such important roles.

A couple of months ago I realized you can’t out-exercise a bad diet so I decided to switch up my whole lifestyle. To be successful in working out and accomplishing your fitness goals, you can’t eat crap and then expect to be able to work it off in the gym the next day. It’s a whole life style change from what you eat, to getting enough sleep, to staying active!

heck yes some days I ran an extra two miles so I could enjoy a cookie! I think there is a difference between understanding calories in food and occasionally doing extra so you can splurge and simply thinking because you worked out you deserve even more.

it’s kind of like after a 5K when they serve OJ and donuts and folks think they burned like a million calories.

HAHAHA. Amanda – I nearly spit out my coffee when I read your last comment. That’s one of my biggest pet peeves. Or how there are socials after a 3 mile run where people eat and drink 5x the number of calories they burned.

Loved that last bit about the 5Ks too. They are still worthy races to run (I know you agree) but not necessary to finish by “refueling” with 1000 calories of sugars. Yea, it’s cool to splurge on occasion and balance it out with training, but not to the extreme or the be all end all of workouts. Totally agree with you that there’s a difference.

OMG. That picture is seriously disgusting! I can’t believe how much portion size has changed!! When we do splurge and order fast food, we order ONE meal and share the fries and drink – and only get a medium sized, at that. As much as I would love to Super Size or whatever it is called, it’s just too much food!
For a while I had the mentality that b/c I was running 50+ miles a week, I could sit on the couch each night and pig out on unhealthy food. I felt worse and was gaining weight! You are right – it’s all about a balance!! Great post, Tina!

I am a BIG believer that it is 80% diet and 20% exercise. I really believe that. I don’t think you can make up for a bad diet. But I do think you can not workout and eat well and still be okay. I really believe you need both in your life but if you had to pick just one then it would be eating right.

YES! The hamster on a wheel syndrome…trying to out-exercise a bad diet. The premise of – well, if I just work out a whole bunch, I can eat extra during the day, or whatever I want (worse). Absolutely agree with every word you say, as always!!

so true!! even though sometimes a fast food meal does taste really good, i’m hungry an hour later because it’s all empty calories. and personally, i’d rather make a fun dessert or an unhealthy dinner at home then enjoy that…because it’s usually better tasting anyways! obviously i can’t do that all the time though… thanks for the reminder. i love those images!

Wow, don’t I know this all too well! I tried to lose weight for years; but, with a bad diet, or even semi-good, I had no luck. It was frustrating to put all that work in and get little to no result.
It wasn’t until I got a real grip on food reality that I finally started to lose weight. Getting all the bad substances out of my system was really hard. Now, I eat great and have more control over myself.
Thanks for doing this Blog.

I totally know how futile it is to try to “exercise away” a bad diet. And during the process, I packed on 11 pounds despite the fact that I was training for/running 3 half marathons in 3 months. At the time I couldn’t figure outwhy I was struggling so much with weight loss. Then I took a step back and realized just how much damage I was doing with my eating habits. You know, the whole “I just ran 10 miles so I can eat whaterver I want” mentality.

I’ve backed off of running (for other reasons) and cleaned up my diet & have lost those 11 pounds and I’m still making progress towards my goal weight. So at least I learned the lesson eventually, right?

you know i totally agree with you that it’s awesome that exercise is being promoted more, but that’s only half of a healthy lifestyle. i think it’s easier for us to take on something new (exercise) rather than give something up that we love (crap food). BUT i think we’ll get there soon (hopefully)!

OMG YES!! No matter HOW MUCH you workout, if you’re fueling your body with crap food, it’ll do you no good whatsoever, and in fact it outdoes much of that hard work you just put into your workout. Plus, you feel SO MUCH BETTER when you eat well vs. lots of pre-packaged crap. Man, I wish more people would “get” this and really listen when research like this comes out to prove the point. (can you tell this really FIRES me up?? lol)

Great post, Tina! I also read/love the blog, Mark’s Daily Apple (www.marksdailyapple.com) and he claims that the key to losing weight is 80% diet and the remainder exercise. Based on my limited experience, I would tend to agree. Thanks for this reminder.

So true! Our society somewhere along the line lost the basic instinct to eat real food. I am pretty good about eating real food and so are my kids, but I find that it is a real challenge to teach them this when they are surrounded by a society that is all about processed stuff. The saddest thing to me is that all of their sports activities parents insist on bringing snacks for after. Doritos, juice boxes, etc.–what are we teaching them?

I know what you mean! At M’s preschool whenever we had to bring snacks or little lunches for the kids it would be crazy. When I had to bring something I brought these mini whole wheat pumpkin muffins that Makenzie LOVES. Other kids wouldn’t touch them. Any other event, moms were brining mini packaged donuts, Chick Fil A platters, etc. I think those things are fine on occasion but do 2-3 year olds need that for EVERY little party lunch at school?

I like the you cant out-exercise bad eating habits. I think this got me in trouble when I trained for my half marathon. I thought well I did run 10 miles today so i can eat anything I want today. And I kind of laughed when I saw the little people at the bottom of the graph. Its so true though, so really its sad. Especially when kids are obese because its their parents who feed them to that point.

This is so very true! I’ve always heard that you can lose weight simply by cleaning up your diet, without even exercising (although exercise is very good for your health!) but if you’re only exercising and not changing your diet, then you won’t get too far!

I tried to out-exercise my diet, it didn’t work. I would eat clean during the week and then cheat on the weekend. I figured my running would make up for it. I was training for a marathon. I actually gained weight. Once I cleaned up my eating, I lost 30 pounds.

I am the king of trying to out excercise a bad diet. LOL. Weird, right? Well, I’m not really trying to lose weight, just sort of maintain my existing size. I tend to fluctuate 5-10 pounds, mostly because when I don’t run, my diet stays the same. See the problem. I enjoy running and I enjoy what I eat (which really isn’t that bad), but there is always room for improvement. Great share!

GREAT post!! When I make a bad dietary decision, I often try to exercise it out and it NEVER works. I eat a pretty clean diet with the exception of dessert. These past few weeks I have been a little stressed because of my wedding last weekend. Because of the stress I ate as I normally do but didn’t feel the need to reach for dessert, I was too distracted to notice. It was amazing how great I feel b/c I cut out the unneccessary sugar in my diet. Now let’s hope I don’t get bored and reintroduce that nightly dessert.

I am so glad you posted this and could not agree with this more. A lot of people come up to me at Zumba and even work and ask me questions about fitness. They tell me they are working out “soooooooo much” but are not seeing the results on the scale or on their bodies. I tell them, “Honestly, losing weight at least for me, is 95% of what I eat. I can teach 10 hours of Zumba a week, but if I eat poorly, I will NO DOUBT gain weight despite the calories I am burning. It is the FOOD that matters”..and most of the time, they look at me in disbelief. They think really, its all food? And I do truly believe losing weight and being healthy is almost entirely what you eat. Sure, exercise helps and you SHOULD exercise, but really diet is so, so, so important. I am also grateful that I just happen to be one of those people that LOVE healthy foods. I love oatmeal, vegetables, lean proteins, etc. just by nature. Anyway, this was a great post and I hope this digests with a lot of people out there.

I saw that info graph also. Sadly, portion sizes have been growing and growing for a while now. And it’s so true, our bodies become HIGHLY addicted to additives…and especially sugar. Sugar is the worst, and it’s hidden in our food in SO many forms! We should only be eating 30 grams per day, including fruit sugar, and the average American consumes 150 grams a day! Scary!

When I was younger, I used to think I could exercise off anything bad that I ate. Now I am learning that it takes a healthy diet and exercise all of the time to stay fit. There are no tricks or secrets!

I train hard, in the last 2 years I’ve increased my protein intake and cut my carbs, chocolates and salty snack consumption – I’m now seeing the results as well as having a 4 pack for the first time in my life.

My brother works for the post office and walks about 40 miles per week on his rounds, his diet isn’t good, to look at ham and another person – you couldn’t really tell that he’s the one who walks the beat, so all his hard exercise is going to waste.